5.  The applicant is an Azerbaijan citizen who was born in 1971 and currently lives in Biedermansdorf, Austria.
6.  The date of the applicant’s arrival in Lithuania was disputed between the parties. The applicant stated that he had lived in Lithuania since 1989, proof of which was the judgment of 1989 of Vilnius City 2nd District Court by which he was found guilty of theft and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. He claimed that after that trial he was not ordered to leave the country. He also noted that he had arrived in Lithuania before the introduction of the visa regime in the early 1990’s, and that therefore his entry had not been illegal.
7.  The Government stated that the date of the above-mentioned judgment was not 1989 but 1998, and that the applicant only lawfully entered the territory of Lithuania on 12 March 2001, when he was issued with a single-entry visa.
8.  On 25 July 1996 LG, the daughter of the applicant and his partner SG, a Lithuanian citizen, was born in Lithuania. In 2001 the applicant was officially registered as the father of LG. The applicant married SG on 21 April 2001. On this basis, on 11 June 2001 he was issued with a temporary residence permit, valid for one year.
9.  On 16 April 2002 the applicant applied for a renewal of that permit.
10.  On 14 June 2002 the Migration Department refused to issue a new residence permit on the ground that the applicant posed a “threat to national security and public order”. In this connection the immigration authorities referred to the file classified as “secret”, which had been received from the State Security Department on 10 June 2002.
11.  On 24 June 2002 the Police Commissariat of the Trakai Region ordered the applicant to leave the territory of the Republic of Lithuania by 4 July 2002.
12.  On 26 June 2002 the applicant appealed to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court, requesting that the decisions of the Migration Department and the Police Commissariat of the Trakai Region be quashed. The applicant argued that he had lived in Lithuania since 1989, from which date he had been granted a temporary residence permit several times, owned real estate in Lithuania, had his own business, had established a non-governmental organisation “Ibrahim and friends”, which aimed to foster the cultural traditions of Azeris residing in Lithuania, and in 1996 had had a daughter with his wife SG, a Lithuanian citizen. The applicant also noted that at the time of the deportation proceedings his wife had been expecting another child.
13.  On 10 August 2002 the court dismissed the appeal. It relied on the written evidence in the case and, in particular, on the above-mentioned classified report of the State Security Department, which was not disclosed to the applicant, and concluded that the applicant’s continued presence in Lithuania endangered the national security of the country and public order.
14.  The applicant appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. In addition to his previous arguments, he noted that his wife was of Armenian origin and, taking into account the tensions in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the previous military conflicts between the two countries, she would have difficulties integrating in Azerbaijan if the applicant was expelled from Lithuania and she decided to go with him. The applicant maintained that the authorities’ main reason for denying him a residence permit was the classified file in which it was stated that he posed a threat to national security. As the content of that file had never been disclosed to him, he had had no opportunity to challenge such accusations.
15.  The applicant failed to comply with the order to leave the territory of Lithuania and, on 16 September 2002, he was arrested and temporarily accommodated at the Aliens Registration Centre.
16.  On 14 October 2002 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the lower court’s decision. The court stated that it had examined the documents regarding the applicant, classified as “secret”, contained in the file provided by the State Security Department. The court did not disclose the content of those documents. On that basis, the court concluded that the applicant’s continued presence in Lithuania posed a threat to the national security of the State, and that the impugned administrative decisions were thus lawful.
17.  On 14 October 2002 the Migration Department adopted a decision to deport the applicant to Azerbaijan and prohibit him from entering the territory of Lithuania for an unspecified period of time. On the same day the applicant was deported from Lithuania by train; however, he jumped off the train and stayed in Lithuania. On 16 October 2002 the applicant was prohibited from entering Lithuania until 2099.
18.  In October 2002 the applicant and SG’s second child, IG, was born. IG is also a Lithuanian citizen.
19.  On 18 February 2003 the applicant was arrested in Vilnius and placed in the Aliens Registration Centre. He was subsequently hospitalised, but escaped from there. A few months later the authorities apprehended him and returned him to the Aliens Registration Centre.
20. On 12 March 2003 the applicant submitted his application to the Court. From that day until 6 November 2003 he made several appeals to the Migration Department, requesting not to be deported. When his requests were denied, he appealed to the administrative courts, the final decision dismissing his appeals being given by the Supreme Administrative Court on 4 September 2003. He also unsuccessfully requested the Migration Department to grant him refugee status. The applicant appealed to administrative courts, but on 22 September 2004 the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed his request.
21.  On 5 November 2003 the applicant lodged a request to be deported from the Republic of Lithuania as soon as possible, indicating that the questions regarding his administrative case would be taken care of by his wife and his lawyer. The following day he was deported to Azerbaijan.